Automotive rear seat and seat assemblies play an important role in automobile design and functionality and an ever-increasing role in customer satisfaction. The typical rear seat provides additional occupant seating while striking a balance between the remaining vehicle space provided between the cargo area and the forward seating area. Some rear seats are provided with comfort accessories, such as built-in armrest and center consoles. Most rear seating sections are provided with safety or lap belts. The rear seats come in a number of styles, i.e., bench, bucket, split, and split with center console. Other rear seats are combinations of styles such as a bench upper back section combined with two lower bucket or split sections. Regardless of the seat style, most rear seats have fixed, non-adjustable, lower seat and upper back portions. Each portion of the seat is assembled directly to and inside the passenger compartment of the vehicle. Lap belts are positioned between the seat sections and directly fastened to the vehicle.
Ever increasingly, customer satisfaction has demanded that rear seating become adjustable. However, adjustability has been limited by the style of vehicle and the available rear seating clearance between the cargo area and forward seating area. For trunk type passenger vehicles having a defined cargo section, a fixed wall separates the cargo section and passenger sections from one another. This wall creates the back envelope dimension limitation beyond which the rear seat may not extend. Because of the wall limitation, the seat upper back portion is typically fixed and non-adjustable and the headrests are directly mounted to the wall. In some vehicles, the upper back portion may be reversibly pivotally attached to the lower seat portion enabling a forward adjustment that is limited in its backward travel by the wall. Pivotally connected upper back portions enable cargo area access or allow limited inclination adjustment by the passenger. One such rear seat with limited inclination adjustment within the occupant space is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,721, where a guide is supported by the frame of the automobile such that when the door is opened, the cushion assembly translates towards its most withdrawn position. The rear seat arrangement for this vehicle utilizes valuable cargo space or occupant space to allow for the inclination and seat adjustment.
For hatchback type passenger vehicles having a cargo section, e.g., there typically are no physical barriers, i.e., the wall mentioned above, but the upper back section may act as the divider between the passenger section and the cargo section. Accordingly, the upper seat back section may be reversibly pivotally attached to the lower seat portion enabling a forward or backward adjustment that is limited by the pivot or the floor of the cargo area. One such rear seat is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,787, where the rear back rest is hinged at its lower edge or end to the rear edge of the rear seat proper. The top edge of the rear back seat is guided in substantially vertical guide rails, whereby it is possible to tilt the back seat relative to the horizontal in the manner of a reclining chair simultaneously with the longitudinal adjustment of the rear seat or seats. The rear seat arrangement for this vehicle also utilizes valuable cargo space or occupant space to allow for the inclination and seat adjustment. Additionally, although the headrest of this system is desirably fixed to the upper back section, rotation of the seat section repositions an occupant's torso and head differently with respect to the upper back section and headrest of the seat.
It would be advantageous to have a seat that allows for improved adjustability without the need for rotating the upper back section into (or out of) the passenger or cargo section of the vehicle. Also it would be desirable to have such a seat that advantageously uses the positioning to achieve better torso/head alignment with the upper back section and headrest of the seat.
Furthermore, the typical rear seat enables accessible safety harnesses that are directly attached to the frame of the car to pass between the various seat sections. Because the typical rear seats of a passenger vehicle are commonly positioned within the remaining room of a passenger vehicle and each seat portion is independently assembled during the final stages of the vehicle assembly and manufacture, the safety harness buckle or latch are also independently installed interstitially assembled between the seat sections. It is precisely this independent installation of safety harness components and seat sections that contributes to difficulties in final manufacturing and assembly of rear seating sections requiring multiple assembly operations by the suppliers and OEMs.
Installation of a pre-installation rear seating assembly having a seat or multiple seats, center console or other optional accessories, and each seat outfitted with the appropriate safety harness component would therefore allow for a more efficient and simple automated installation. In addition, a pre-installation rear seating assembly would provide a financial benefit to suppliers of rear seat assemblies by allowing the marketing and sale of a seat assembly from a single seating source. Likewise, a pre-installation rear seating assembly would provide a financial benefit to the OEM, allowing for simplified installation of a seating assembly rather than constituent parts.